Green Mile
by Dark Austral
Summary: A crossroad can lead to many what-ifs, but only one route can be walked.


**Disclaimer**: Don't own this show

**Spoilers:** 6x20, the Man who would be King.

**A/N:** This is just a colleciton of what-ifs from the scene where Cas visits Dean, whose raking leaves. It explores possibile outcomes.

**Green Mile**

_Cas stands quietly watching Dean rake. He doesn't go with Crowley when the demon tries selling an unholy alliance. Instead, he flies back up to Heaven, fights with everything he has against Raphael. It's not enough. It never was and he knows it was a foolish human dream to think he could do it._

_Blood and Grace leaking out of him, Cas lays on his back feeling Raphael back away, gloating at his victory. Blinking away tears he can't hold back, Cas dies on the eternal green grass of a park of the autistic man, the stripped kite the last thing he sees._

_A week later, with no rules governing them, the Cage is pried open. Hellfire burns the Earth as Lucifer and Michael's fight spills topside. It's fast, without warning. All Dean can do is clutch his bleeding stomach, screaming out as Lucifer within the façade of Sam kills Lisa and Ben right before his eyes._

* * *

It's the sound of leaves crunching that halts Dean in his work. He shifts, fingers curling around the handle, body tense for a fight.

"Dean."

The low growl plays with Dean, making his heart skip while his stomach flips. Taking a step back, he turns to regard someone he swore he never would see. "Cas."

The angel looks the same but at the same time, he's different. There's something off as those piercing blue eyes snap downwards, "I…"

"You look like crap." Dean cuts in, not wanting to hear nothing but still wanting the company even if he had sworn to himself he was done with everything related to hunting. "Wanna a beer?"

* * *

The ex-hunter keeps raking as his heart clenches upon hearing the familiar flapping of wings.

"Dean."

"Cas."

The angel sighs, feeling for the first time that he's come home.

* * *

_Sometimes, the talk with Dean goes well, too well. And Crowley can't sink his hooks into Castiel. Yet, he has to look at the bright side. Cas left him alive, despite the threat. And really, he has Samuel Campbell and Sam's soul in his hand. And the poor, stupid angel didn't tell Dean about Sam's meat suit walking about._

_It's all about timing really. And maybe it wasn't meant to happen right here and now in the backyard of suburbia but somewhere else down the road. Crowley merely has to wait and he shall because this relationship between Cas and Dean will shatter, with or without his intervention. Then he'll just pick up the pieces and carry on his merry way._

* * *

They have one of their first civil conversations in the bitter autumn wind, both still too hurt over the last exchange in the Impala.

Cas looks anywhere but at Dean, trying to remember how humans speak to one another without sounding like he's giving an order or completely what was the term, 'freaking out.' Swallowing, he gazes up at Dean slowly. "You look well."

Silence fills the air, the two staring at each other not knowing where to go.

Dean, as usual, breaks the silence. "What are you doing here?"

"I…I need to talk to you." And doesn't that sound pathetic.

"I'm out Cas. Finish. Done." Of course he would be, why did Cas think that would change. "That's not my life anymore."

Rejection is becoming a familiar feeling, but since he's made himself known Cas might as well say it. "I only seek advice."

Dean stares hard and long, lips thinning. Breaking a hand away from the handle, he runs a hand through his hair snapping his eyes towards the house. "Lisa's making steak for dinner. You're welcome to stay. We can talk afterwards."

Cas tries to hide the swell of relief and hope. "I don't want to impose."

Surprisingly, Dean chuckles. "You won't."

* * *

_In the rarest of rare moments, Cas submits to Raphael. He has to stop his brother from opening the Cage, but right now he doesn't have the resources. So he waits, for the moment when Raphael invades Hell. Utilizing all the damned souls Crowley lends him, Castiel glances at Rachel who nods in return. Without pause, he flings himself at Raphael's back, his Grace burning under the strain of the souls exploding within him. Tumbling both through the small crack in the Cage, Cas doesn't waste time. Reaching out blindly through the blinding clashes of his older brothers, he grabs Sam and Adam's souls hurling them out a mere second before it seals shuts once more._

_As the other angels stand in stun silence, the howling of demons roaring towards them, Rachel steps into her new role. Leading the ones loyal to Castiel, she carries two precious souls out of Perdition. None try to look back as the demons attack Raphael's followers. None try to listen to the rattling of the Cage as the three remaining archangels punish their little brother. As Adam is returned to Heaven, into the loving arms of his mother, Rachel hunts down Sam's body and returns his soul._

_From the quiet stillness of Heaven, she watches as Dean opens the door, staring in shock before hugging his brother tight and welcoming him into his and Lisa's home. Her mission is complete._

* * *

Dean pauses in dumping the leaves into the bag, jerking slightly when he catches a glimpse of beige out of the corner of his eyes. "Cas, don't do that," he snaps without any heat behind the words.

Cas steps fully into his view, looking none the different. "I'm sorry."

"Stalker much," Dean closes the top, spinning the bag so he can tie it off. "What are you even doing here? Don't you have more important things to do upstairs? Being the new sheriff and all?" He doesn't want to deal with this, letting the grief seep through.

There's almost a disappointed look flashing over the angel's features. "I am not the sheriff, Dean."

Raising an eyebrow, Dean plays along, "Oh?"

Hands tuck themselves in their pockets and Cas shuffles slightly on his feet, head hung low and eyes staring at something fascinating on the ground. It reminds Dean of when Ben is afraid to ask him something. "I need your help."

Turning, Dean fumbles slightly with tying off the bag, a swell of emotions clashing in him breaking the quiet solitude he created here. From past experiences, when Cas asks for help it doesn't usually mean a standard hunt, but something way beyond even the angel's control. He doesn't have it in him to pick up the sword. Not anymore. "I'm out." His voice is quiet in the neighborhood.

"Dean."

"No Cas. I'm out." His voice grows strong and stern as he locks his gaze on those sea-blue eyes. "I'm finished. I've sacrificed enough for you and your God." There's a tiny flinch in those orbs but Dean pushes onward, "I am sick and tired of being some pawn or being dragged into a war that isn't mine."

"I-" There's tightness, a waver in Cas' tone. But that can't be because Cas is back to being an angel. He's not human anymore, doesn't have no more emotions. He's just imagining things.

"You left. And I get it, you wanted to go home. Fine." He pauses, watching as Cas' face falls flat, those eyes darkening, "But I left as well. I've made a life here, God forgive me, I have. So like Hell am I dragging Lisa and Ben into any stupid mess you got yourself into."

Cas' responds so softly Dean barely hears him, "You don't-"

"No."

"Dean."

"No, Cas. I don't want to hear it. Sam is dead. He's getting tortured in the Pit and I can't do a damn thing about it." The angel almost seems to shrink into himself, eyes darting off to the side as if he knows something. But Dean can't stop himself, not now with another wave of fresh hurt drowning him once more. "So why the hell would I worry about your problems. If anything, why don't you try to get Sam out."

Cas takes a slight step backward, eyes snapping up to stare at him once more with a flood of hurt and despair all within the confines of a child-like expression. His mouth begins to open but Dean doesn't want to hear it. He just wants Cas, his friend, this link to his past to be gone so he can go drown again in the bottle behind the box of golf balls.

"Just go! Leave, damn it. Leave me alone!"

* * *

Other times, the rejections are quick and burns briefly like the pulling of a band aid.

"I can't do it, Cas. I won't."

"I know."

* * *

_Sometimes Dean brushes away the angel before he has a chance speak his case. In all these instances of rejection, Crowley is like a dog to a bone. He springs into action, drinking in the anguish Dean brings upon the angel. And oh Cas is so deliciously ripe. He was planning on snagging the angel before he had a chance to talk to Dean. But the demon should have known that within his own grief, without Sam anchoring him, Dean would lash out at Cas. That is how Dean operates after all; Sam is number one, all other concerns a distant second_.

* * *

A miracle occurs when the two sit down and listen to each other. They relearn how to talk to each other beyond gazes and body language. Words bounce ideas and opinions back and forth as they sit on the cold concrete steps, the pile of leaves left untouched.

Rubbing his forehead, Dean closes his eyes pushing away the pounding headache he feels coming. "So Raphael wants to restart the Apocalypse?" He thought it was over. That this threat was done with the moment Sam jumped into the Pit, dragging Lucifer, Michael and Adam with him.

"Yes. It's either I die or submit to him." Cas talks briefly, as if saying such things was nothing new to him. And maybe it wasn't.

Straightening his back, Dean turns his head to stare hard into Cas' face, where those familiar eyes are lost and weary beyond reason. It seems Cas didn't get his reward neither, the war far from over for him. Lips thinning, Dean realizes he knows the answer, the Winchester response to everything. "Then fight him."

Disbelief makes Cas jerk his head back as if he's been slapped. A shake of the head follows and Cas whispers back with broken hope. "Dean, he's too powerful. I can't stop him."

"Sam and I took down monsters twice our size. Hell, we took down Lucifer. And he was way above our pay grade." Dean leans further into Cas' personal space, realizing he's missed the electric comfortableness. "You'll find a way, you always do."

Cas swallows and those eyes lower briefly and Dean knows his words are sinking in. "And if I do? Find a way to beat Raphael?"

"You stick by what you believe in and fight it with all you got. Tell Raphael to stick it where the sun don't shine." Flashing a sad grin, he knows that he isn't going to get a wink of sleep tonight. With Sam burning in the Cage and now Cas marching off towards war, Dean realizes he doesn't like sitting on the side-lines. But he's made this choice and he's sticking to it.

"It will be civil war," Cas states with a hidden fear, as if he's remembering another war from long ago. "I'd be like Lucifer."

Bumping shoulders lightly, Dean truly smiles as Cas looks at him as if he holds all the answers to the universe. "You ain't Lucifer, Cas."

* * *

In reality, Cas pauses in making himself known, doubt tickling the back of his mind. Dean keeps on raking, oblivious to how close his peace is about to come crumbling down. And Crowley, he joins the angel, offering a solution. A deal, an agreement that is too good to be true which it probably is. It's a suicide mission either way but Cas can't remember a time when his existence wasn't one long walk on the green mile.


End file.
